Kogan.com Ltd's (ASX:KGN) top owners are retail investors with 59% stake, while 22% is held by insiders
Key Insights
The considerable ownership by retail investors in Kogan.com indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
41% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
If you want to know who really controls Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:KGN), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 59% to be precise, is retail investors. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
And individual insiders on the other hand have a 22% ownership in the company. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Kogan.com.
Check out our latest analysis for Kogan.com
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Kogan.com?
Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.
We can see that Kogan.com does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Kogan.com's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
Kogan.com is not owned by hedge funds. The company's CEO Ruslan Kogan is the largest shareholder with 16% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 5.3% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.2% by the third-largest shareholder. Interestingly, the third-largest shareholder, David Shafer is also a Member of the Board of Directors, again, indicating strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.
A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.
While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.
Insider Ownership Of Kogan.com
The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.
Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.
Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Kogan.com Ltd. It has a market capitalization of just AU$589m, and insiders have AU$128m worth of shares in their own names. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public -- including retail investors -- own 59% of Kogan.com. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.
Next Steps:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Kogan.com better, we need to consider many other factors.
Many find it useful to take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.
Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
